Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Ma Fuller's Burgoo Recipe

Decided to put this in a new thread. Way back in the 1940-70's time period, a lady known as Ma Fuller ran a beer/bbq joint on US Hwy 41. People drove for miles to get her pork BBQ and burgoo. This recipe was published about 20 years after she closed, in the local newspaper. My wife makes a batch every few years, and it's the best burgoo I've ever had. Much better than that stuff that Moonlite in Owensboro is famous for. However, burgoo is a very specialized dish, as no two cooks use the exact same ingredients.

1 chopped onion
1/2 head shred cabbage
2 potatoes diced
3 carrots diced
2 pounds chopped pork bbq
1 pound sausage
1 pound ground beef
1 can blackeye peas
1 can pork and beans
1 can tomatoes
1 can lima beans
1 can green peas
1 can corn
1/2 bottle ketchup
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tsp red pepper
1 tsp vinegar
salt to taste.

Some burgoo I'e eaten has also had hot sauce added, but if done right, it doesn't need a lot of hot sauce.

Thanks, James. I've saved this on my computer.

I first had burgoo when I was in North Carolina hunting swans. I really liked it, but my efforts to find a recipe to duplicate what I had down there has not gone well.

I'm looking forward to trying this version.

However, I've never seen blackeye peas for sale in here in Sweden.

Do you think that kidney beans or black beans would be the best substitute?

I'd welcome opinions from any of our cooks here on the 'Fire because I haven't eaten blackeyed peas for damn near 3 decades and I can't remember what they taste like.

john

what kind of sausage is that?

I’d love to try that and even have the ingredients during this lockdown.

I just think that the quantity it makes would take about a month to eat.

We use country sausage, such as Jimmy Dean, or Tennessee Pride.

I suppose you can substitute veggies, and I would think that black eyed peas would be hard to find there. Either bean you name would probably work. I will say this, and that is that a lot of the flavor is derived from the pork bbq, and to me that’s one of the most important ingredients. The pork bbq here is pretty much a regional thing.

I would think a white bean would be a good substitute for black eyed peas. Something like a fava bean.

James,

Thanks for the post.

May I ask, where in the Bluegrass State that you call "home"? The reason that I ask is because my buddy is from Bourbon County and says that burgoo is a western KY dish. Pennyrile definitely seems west but I don't know if that actually makes any difference.

I was under the impression that the burgoo tradition spans KY, southern Illinois, southern Indiana, and southern OH. And there's Bergoo, WV

Thanks,

Jason

Southwestern Kentucky here, down next to the Tennessee state line. I have relatives just across the state line in Tennessee, and they'd never heard of burgoo until they came to Kentucky. Not every BBQ place serves it, and those that do will have a different version.

That’s quite the hodgepodge of ingredients. 4 pounds of meat, a half dozen cans of assorted food stuffs, and most of a bottle of ketchup! Bet it’d be great after a bender.

Most regions seem to have their own version of a “catch all” stew, though I’m not sure what the PNW version would be? Ciopinno maybe? In Georgia we had our Brunswick stew.

Yes, when it's cooked down, it's pretty much like a mush.

Are you near Reelfoot, I hunt there every year.